The answer to that question appears to be a resounding “yes”…
I’m not sure if I want to dwell too much on Brewers 1 Alcoholics 0 today, because it’s managing to leave a bad taste in my mouth.
That’s not down to the Carling** sold in the ground either, even if your editor hasn’t had an alcoholic drink at a game in about 3 years.
** – is it true that they took the old Carling recipe, changed a couple of minor things and called it “Madri”?
Not that I would drink either, although turps might have been a good option yesterday.
I’ve ended up spending longer on writing it than I wanted to, and it’s a bit like being stuck in a traffic jam when you badly need a piss.
But if we go down after all, it’s going to end up feeling worse than the last time we got relegated.
As for the game, if I really must. We started OK, as it goes. Browne definitely makes a difference, and he definitely should have had a penalty.
After that, it seemed Burton got wind of us (and everything else, such were the gusts), realised we were vulnerable and we kind-of faded.
Although Reeves had a shot close to the break, which turned out to be our only effort.
It was pretty much them on top in the second half, and their goal was as soft as anything.
I do believe even typing this now that with at least one recognised centre-back yesterday that probably wouldn’t have happened.
Then again, the way Burton were playing (or more accurately, the way we weren’t), them scoring would have been inevitable.
Of course, you can go behind, and if you’re in a relegation scrap you then push on to get a valuable point, right?
Hmm, yes, well…
OK, we put Tilley on for a 30 minute run-out, and put Foyo on with Browne coming off, and in a post-Easter miracle – the first ever sighting of Layton “Orient” Stewart.
Yet we could have been attacking this morning and I don’t think we would have found the net.
Indeed, Burton could have doubled it, and perhaps should have, but there was a distinct lack of urgency.
What made it worse was that we had five minutes of injury time, which gave us carte blanche to start give away absolutely nothing free kicks away.
To give an idea of how wretched things are right now, when Alistair Smith – Alistair Smith – ends up being a centre back, you know you’re fucked for the afternoon.
Christ, even I can head the ball better than he can.
Yesterday just felt wrong on so many levels, as though we can’t believe we’re in a relegation fight after all.
While we shouldn’t be, though I understand why our form has dropped off, I don’t think we helped ourselves yesterday.
I mention JJ’s post game interview, and while he’s right that injuries have buggered us painfully, he didn’t help himself.
Putting a returning Sasu on as a starter was one bad decision. Why not Foyo as a starter? At least he’s a recognised forward who hasn’t yet been crocked.
And no disrespect to Sasu, he looked pretty lightweight throughout, and I would struggle to justify starting him even when he’s fully fit.
Reeves slows things down too much, and if we don’t need to play him then we shouldn’t.
But JJ’s comment about coming to dig in and get the point gave the game away – only he seem to be convinced our back line is good enough to do that.
Right now, we need goals. Hell, right now we need just a goal. But he seems to believe that we can secure L1 status by trying to win every game 0-0.
If we attack in games, we stand a chance. But we tried to soak up pressure yesterday, got undone and then just didn’t know what to do.
I do wonder if JJ will be moving on at the end of the season anyway, but that’s a discussion for another time, and I doubt if he wants a relegation on his CV.
But he needs to figure it out, and quickly.
Just one thing further – your editor will be in the PL press box for Stockport and Plymouth, and I’ll need to interview JJ afterwards both times.
I just hope for the love of Satan that we get a point from both games, because he’s not the happiest soul after we lose…
Plus points: Tilley and Browne returning. Plymouth drawing with Exeter.
Minus points: We lost. Not looking likely to hit back. Poor defending for their goal. Lack of any sort of cohesion in the second half.
The referee’s a…: Well, he could have helped us a bit with the blatant penalty that we didn’t get.
Though as somebody said afterwards, we probably would have missed it…
Them: Not much better than us, but one suspects their injury crisis wasn’t nearly an issue as ours.
One suspects a better side would have got at least a point, but sadly we’re not in that category right now.
We always seem to struggle against the Brewers for some reason, especially at their place.
They managed to ruin your editor’s 50th birthday this season at Plough Lane, and the less said about yesterday the better.
I’d forgotten that they spent two seasons in the Championship about a decade ago, which considering they’re in the shadow of Derby, Forest and (to a lesser extent) Notts County was no mean feat.
Nice, compact ground, and it’s surprising just how small the capacity is (close to 7000). Although their PA was somewhat too loud and their announcer was a bit too jolly.
They did something with their ad hoardings that was quite clever – they make them all the same two colours so the perimeter doesn’t look like what i imagine an LSD trip to be like.
Oh, and they had the usual drum and “ultras” section. “Brewers Union”, apparently, though I can’t see them belonging to the TUC.
Point to ponder: Are there any positives around right now?
Actually, there are, although you’ll have to bear with me on this. It might lessen the current depression.
Firstly, we are three points off the drop zone, and even now that’s still a sizable gap for Exeter.
Remember that they didn’t win at Plymouth yesterday, in a game where they would have been fired up about.
Secondly, it might seem more of a curse than a blessing, but we do have a game in hand this Wednesday.
Even a point would do us wonders, and I haven’t mentioned what happens if we score a goal as well.
Because right now, our big problem is belief. We just don’t believe we can find the net, let alone go and win.
The last time we were in that shit situation, we managed to score at Vale Park and suddenly it ignited us.
It will mostly be the same players who have to repeat that trick again, and if we get something against Stockport it will feel like six points.
Which leads us to the third reason we may not need to find the nearest bridge just yet. There’s still some twists and turns to come.
Our form is beyond shite right now, of course, but while it’s not guaranteed it has to pick up at some point.
The time to pick up points will be in the last four games of the season, because it’s like putting on a sprint in the last 0.219 miles in a marathon.
We have Browne and Tilley back, and judging by the injuries in question Hippo, Johnson, Lewis and Bauer won’t be too far behind.
We’ll quickly realise just how much we’ve missed them.
Granted, there’s some caveats to all of this. We can’t score to save our lives right now, and we have too many bits-and-pieces strikers at the club.
The likes of Smith and Maycock need to start popping up with one or two goals themselves.
We need to attack because our L1 status depends on it, but I’m not sure right now if our current manager sees that.
But I’ve long believed this season that if we need the points, we’ll get them. It’s a belief that’s been tested to the limit right now, but maybe I’ll be proved right?
Truth is stranger than fiction: 1) The volunteers coach breaking down at Northampton. It was that kind of day. Could have been worse though, your editor was there about 30 minutes before they arrived. 2) Somebody at HT saying we’d win because the stats were in our favour. Our sponsor has a lot to answer for.
Anything else? It’s games like this where I’m glad the recent vote for equity went like it did.
Firstly, thanks to everyone who responded (almost universally positively) to the 50+1 article published last Thursday.
I was glad when the club announced the results a few hours after I published it, and not just because there was a secret fear that it would be overturned and I’d jumped the gun publishing.
You can’t argue with that turnout and percentage of those who voted in favour.
It’s interesting to find out just how many people are on the same page over all this, and even if the worst does happen results-wise we should be in a better financial place in due course.
Yesterday did bring it home just how much we’re being left behind, though.
Burton have a wage bill 2.5 times higher than ours, and that’s a club with less support than ours in a poorer part of the country.
You can argue the toss about how sustainable their operating losses are, but I don’t think that in itself matters as much as the ability to pay that off if needed.
Should we go down our financial issues won’t go away, and given we lost £1m from our last relegation that will be more than a sharp stick prodding away.
Simply put, we’re too poor to be a football club of our size. And it’s virtually impossible to downsize as an organisation, because we’re on a shoestring enough as it is.
Our problem at AFCW is that even if current debt and expenditure in football was cut by about 70% we’d still be in the same situation as now.
Everyone else would just undercut (or pay over us) because they have more money in the bank than us. Even Burton, and even a fair number of L2 clubs.
Things like this probably wouldn’t help us much, if at all, because other clubs would just simply offer better win bonuses and/or other incentives.
Right now, where it’s most important, many are complaining we let Harbottle go in January. Because we’re so financially stretched we couldn’t afford to keep him on and get Tilley back in on loan.
There might be non-financial reasons why he left, sometimes it’s best for all concerned if a player departs anyway.
But we had to shore up our forward line and yet couldn’t even bring in one player at the back, which is something IMO that contributed to the way the vote went.
You can have a whole debate on “sustainability”, whether the authorities could have done more in the past to keep things in check (answer: I’m not so sure if they could).
Or whether they have a duty to protect supposedly “sustainable” clubs like us (answer: they don’t).
Indeed, was the ownership model from 2002-26 ever sustainable beyond the Conference South? Thinking about it, I’m not sure if it ever was.
Look at how AFCW went down to 75% ownership, and spending the last ten years trying to get external funding in a way that didn’t upset the horses.
Hell, we even had external funding to buy Jon Main. That was the first warning sign.
So, I’m happy that it’s all been approved and I expect a lot of the club’s decision makers are secretly relieved too.
Very few people outside AFCW give a shit that the club is “fan owned”, and in truth not so many people are bothered inside it as well.
It might not keep us up this campaign after all, but we stand a much better chance next season…
So, was it worth it? Piss off.
In a nutshell: Four cup finals…